Climate Crazy

    Lebanon's capital Beirut and the surrounding suburbs experienced what meteorologists named a "historical hailstorm," which covered the capital in a white blanket for hours, causing massive floods and impeding traffic on the major coastal highway.


    Al Arabiya English reached out to Elias Saadeh, founder of Lebanon Weather Forecast, who mentioned that Saturday's phenomenon is due to severe supercell clouds. It lasted around an hour, coupled with severe thunderstorms and heavy hailstones.


    "This supercell affected only the coastal area around Beirut and its suburbs. A supercell effect is always local. Weather stations in Beirut recorded 50mm of rainfall in a lapse of 25 minutes. This quantity is considered enormous since it is equivalent to pouring 50 liters of water in each square meter in 25 minutes. Moreover, this supercell caused a drastic drop in temperature from 21°C to 13.5°C in a couple of minutes," added Saadeh.

    External Content youtu.be
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

    • Official Post

    https://rtd.rt.com/films/india-water-crisis/ - 25' Documentary


    H2WOE

    India's Water Crisis: A Warning To The World


    Water has become a luxury for the people in the Indian state of Punjab. Thousands of villages here rely on water deliveries from elsewhere. People have to pay exorbitant prices for water that their state once had in abundance.


    Farmers can no longer afford to grow food, their crops are dying and they are left with enormous debts. The devastation has led many to take their own lives. Meanwhile the authorities turn a blind eye to the mass suicides.


    Related: Indian acid attack survivors run a popular cafe


    The reasons behind the crisis are a combination of an unintended consequence of the green revolution in India and global climate change. The agricultural infrastructure built by the government is not effective. Traditional methods of gathering and preserving rainwater offer rural dwellers some relief, but cease to be sufficient during a drought.


    The drastic water shortage dictates people’s lives here, with many spending significant amounts of their time on obtaining water: whether it be queueing for a tanker, waiting their turn at a half-dried well or digging reservoirs by hand in the hope of collecting some rainwater. To ensure their families’ survival, they come up with desperate arrangements – such as polygamous marriages; and have to prioritise what to spend their precious water on.


    Related: Flint water crisis chronicles: the poisoning of an American city


    RT Doc crew visits the sun-scorched Punjab to see with their own eyes how the task of obtaining water for their households became a matter of life or death for the people living there.

    • Official Post

    This thread is for all Climate Change and Greenie insanities


    And to kick off...Bringing on the pain...if the green crazies get their way :S


    https://health24.com/lifestyle…-things-change-20200626-4


    Anaesthesia for surgeries can affect the environment – but could things change?

    • General anaesthesia makes it possible to perform life-saving surgery
    • Research suggests that local anaesthesia for some procedures could reduce greenhouse gases
    • Deciding what type of anaesthesia to use will, however, depend on the best outcome for the patient

    When we think of the gases that pollute the earth’s atmosphere, we tend to think of large factories spewing carbon dioxide into the air, or cars and lorries spewing fumes. Most of us have no idea that the one thing that makes life-saving surgeries possible is something that also makes a significant contribution to greenhouse gases.


    General anaesthesia, even though it’s used indoors, can have a major effect on the ozone layer, contributing to climate change. Currently, gases such as nitrous oxide and desflurane are used to put patients to sleep. Now a new study published in the British Medical Journal suggests that switching to a local anaesthetic, where possible, can help cut harmful greenhouse emissions.


    Why is general anaesthetic so bad for the ozone layer?


    The researchers used a hospital in New York to see what happens to the emissions inside the building when the surgeons perform several hip and knee replacements under general anaesthetic.


    When general anaesthetic is administered to the patient, a very small amount (less than 5%) of these gases is actually metabolised by the body. The rest travels upwards, directly into the atmosphere.


    And according to the study, the gases most commonly used, nitrous oxide and desflurane, have an extremely high potential for global warming. For example, one hour’s use of desflurane is equivalent to driving a car for about 750 kilometres.


    Although the authors state that there is no data that can give the specific percentage of anaesthetic gasses in the total amount of greenhouse gases, studies estimated that healthcare systems are responsible for 5% to 10% of the national pollutant emissions in the USA – which means that anaesthetic gases are indeed a great contributor to climate change.


    But what about those procedures where local anaesthetics are not possible?


    Local anaesthesia involves only numbing the region where a procedure is performed while you maintain your consciousness throughout the procedure.


    Local anaesthetics are considered safer as patients recover more quickly and there are no special preparations needed beforehand.


    However, local anaesthesia is not possible for all types of surgeries, the authors state in their study. They stress that the decision to use a specific anaesthetic method should depend on what's the best for each individual patient. In their research, the authors focused on the increased use of local anaesthetics for hip and knee replacements.


    In a nutshell, using local anaesthesia wherever possible could lead to better outcomes and quality of care for patients undergoing certain surgeries, while reducing the carbon footprint of operating theatres.

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!

Register Yourself Login